The Conservative government has spent $20 million on media monitoring contracts since late 2012, with some of the largest on behalf of a Prime Minister’s Office increasingly focused on message control. Monitoring of ethnic media in multicultural communities was of particular importance for the Tories.

The money is being spent at the same time as recently released figures from the Canadian Taxpayers Federation show the federal government’s roster of communications staff is more than 3,300 and is expected to cost nearly $263 million this fiscal year.

Newly released documents show federal departments and agencies have hundreds of media monitoring contracts and subscriptions – covering print, broadcast, online and social media – to help them keep tabs on what and how journalists are reporting on government.

“Monitoring spin is more important to this government than collecting data,” said Liberal finance critic Scott Brison, noting billions of dollars in federal spending cuts have included axing jobs and surveys at Statistics Canada. The federal Liberals requested the media-monitoring information.

“They’re addicted to spin but allergic to data.”

Federal government departments have communications staff whose job is to monitor media coverage, be it print, broadcast or social media.

The contracts and subscriptions – some which date back to 2012 and others of which extend into 2015 – are with several media monitoring firms, as well as news outlets such as The Canadian Press and Postmedia Network (which operates the FPInfomart news database). Several individual contracts specifically monitor online social media such as Twitter, which is a growing focus for the government.

Some of the largest contracts were from Public Works and Government Services which, “as a common service provider,” is responsible for media monitoring for several departments. Public Works spent $8.7 million on media monitoring between December 2012 and May 2014.

The Privy Council Office, which supports Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the PMO, had more than $2.1 million in media monitoring contracts during that time.

One of the government’s largest individual media monitoring contracts is with a company called MIREMS Ltd., which provides “multilingual international research and ethnic media services.”

The company, according to its website, monitors more than 1,000 print, radio, television and Internet sources in Canada and worldwide.

The Conservative Party of Canada has for years been actively courting immigrant communities across Canada, and relied heavily on that support when it captured a majority government in the 2011 federal election.

Raymond Rivet, director of corporate and media affairs for the Privy Council Office, said cultural news outlets are an important source of news for many Canadians.

“We monitor cultural news media to assess the effectiveness of Government of Canada communications. The government is there to listen and to respond,” Rivet said in an email.

“These and other media monitoring summaries are shared with departments and agencies across government. This approach provides value for money by eliminating the need for all departments to have contracts to monitor cultural news media.”

For years, Canadian prime ministers have worried about media coverage of their governments and time in office.

Former Conservative prime minister Brian Mulroney appeared to crave media approval and often obsessed over polls. He was known to regularly ask his press secretary of the day: “So, what are the boys saying?” – wondering what the press was reporting about his government.

Harper has previously declared that he doesn’t like to watch Canadian news (instead watching American newscasts) because he doesn’t want to hear what everybody is saying about him.

But the PMO has gone to great lengths to control the news message put out by Harper and the Conservative government, with carefully staged photo ops, or restricting questions from journalists.

Comments

We encourage all readers to share their views on our articles and blog posts. We are committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion, so we ask you to avoid personal attacks, and please keep your comments relevant and respectful. If you encounter a comment that is abusive, click the "X" in the upper right corner of the comment box to report spam or abuse. We are using Facebook commenting. Visit our FAQ page for more information.

Almost Done!

Postmedia wants to improve your reading experience as well as share the best deals and promotions from our advertisers with you. The information below will be used to optimize the content and make ads across the network more relevant to you. You can always change the information you share with us by editing your profile.

By clicking "Create Account", I hearby grant permission to Market to use my account information to create my account.

I also accept and agree to be bound by Postmedia's Terms and Conditions with respect to my use of the Site and I have read and understand Postmedia's Privacy Statement. I consent to the collection, use, maintenance, and disclosure of my information in accordance with the Postmedia's Privacy Policy.

Postmedia wants to improve your reading experience as well as share the best deals and promotions from our advertisers with you. The information below will be used to optimize the content and make ads across the network more relevant to you. You can always change the information you share with us by editing your profile.

By clicking "Create Account", I hearby grant permission to Postmedia to use my account information to create my account.

I also accept and agree to be bound by Postmedia's Terms and Conditions with respect to my use of the Site and I have read and understand Postmedia's Privacy Statement. I consent to the collection, use, maintenance, and disclosure of my information in accordance with the Postmedia's Privacy Policy.